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251
NEANDERTHAL MAN IN MALTA.
By SIR ARTHUR KEITH, F.R.S.
With an account of the survey of Dalam Cave (Ghar Dalatm) by MR.
GEORGE SINCLAIR, A.M.I.C.E.
[WITH PLATES XXXIII AND XXXIV.]
IN the summer of 1918 a Committee of the Anthropological Section
of the British Association met in the Conservator's Office at the
College of Surgeons to arrange for the publication of reports from
Research Committees. Among the reports received was one from Dr. G.
Despott, Curator of the Natural History Museum, Malta, giving an
account of excavations carried out in Ghar Dalam during July and
August of 1917. These excavations were conducted on behalf of a
Committee of the British Association, of which the Chairman was
Professor J. L. Myers and the Secretary Dr. Thomas Ashby. Amongst
the photographs which Dr. Despott submitted as illustrations for
his report was one reproduced on Plate XXXIII. Eight teeth are
represented; those numbered 1 and 2 are peculiar in shape; the
remaining six conform in every respect to the types now prevalent
in modern Europeans. A glance at this photograph was sufficient to
convince anyone who had made a special study of teeth, particularly
those of Homo neanderthalensis, that Nos. 1 and 2 belong to this
strange species of man, and that Dr. Despott's discovery had
carried the distribution of this species-already known at
Gibraltar-right to the middle of the Mediterranean.
On reading over Dr. Despott's report, I was surprised to find
that no trace what- soever had been found in any part of Ghar Dalam
of the culture of palaeolithic man -nothing Mousterian, nothing
Aurignacian-save a flint knife which I was told might be assigned
as reasonably to the neolithic period as to the culture of the late
cave period. The stratum of red cave earth which had yielded the
teeth had also contained abundance of objects of the neolithic
period-pottery, flint scrapers,. bone instru- ments, ornaments, and
others even of a later date. The 2nd molar occurred at a depth of
only 21 feet (76 cm.) below the surface of the cave floor; the
partially formed 3rd molar was a foot deeper in the same red earth
deposit and nearly 7 feet (2 metres) away from the other.
With archaeological evidence all against me, my letter to Nature
(July 25th, 1918, p. 404), announcing the discovery of Neanderthal
man in Malta, may have seemed foolhardy, and it may be well to give
here the grounds on which my assurance
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252 SIR ARTHUR KEITH.-Neanderthal Man in Malta.
was based. In Fig. 1 (I) are represented the series of
developmental stages which end in the formation of an upper molar
tooth of the European type; in the lower series (II) are shown the
corresponding stages which end in that peculiar type of molar which
is found only in man of the Neanderthal type-the type of tooth to
which I have proposed the name taurodont.1 It will be seen that in
both types (Fig. 1, A, A) the crown and neck are formed in exactly
the same way. It is in the next stage (B, B) that a difference in
the order of development appears; in the upper, the pulp cavity is
being enclosed by a turning inwards of the growing margin of the
dental wall; a floor or operculum is being thus formed. In C of the
upper series the roots are being formed, the pulp cavity undergoing
an extension downwards ip.to them. In D (I) growth has ended; the
roots are now completed. The floor or operculum of the pulp cavity,
as may be seen from a comparison of stages in the upper series,
becomes
:; X v 8 X ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.r.
A. 5. C.
FIG. 1.-DEVELOPMENT OF ROOTS AND PULP CAVITY.
(I.) In an upper molar of European type. (II.) In an upper molar
of a type peculiar to Neanderthal man.
(I.) A, the crown and neck being formed on the pulp papilla; B,
a further stage where the dentine turns inwards to form a floor for
the pulp cavity; C, the formation of the separate roots; D, the
roots completely formed; E, proximal aspect of 2nd upper right
molar; i.r., inner root; a.e.r., proximal external root.
(II.) A, B, C, D, corresponding stages of the taurodont molar of
Neanderthal man. The floor or operculum of the pulp cavity is not
formed until the final stage of develop- ment is reached. E, the
proximal aspect of the 2nd upper molar of right side which was
found by Dr. Despott. A groove on this aspect indicates the
junction of the internal and external root areas. The operculum is
shown and the fissure of entrance to the pulp cavity.
extended in the roots to their tips. The only entrances to the
pulp cavity are the three openings situated on the tips of the
three roots. In the taurodont molar the formation of the floor of
the pulp cavity, which takes place at stage B in the upper series,
is delayed until stage D of the lower series. In this latter form,
roots are not
1 " Problems relating to the Teeth of the earlier forms of
Prehistoric Man," Proc. Roy. Soc. of Med., 1913, vol. 6
(Odontological Section), p. 1.
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SIR ARTHUR KEITH.-Neanderthal Man in Malta. 253
differentiated as separate structures. But their substance can
be recognized on the body of the tooth (Fig. 1, E, i.r., a.e.r.).
The floor of the pulp cavity is developed at the bottom of the
tooth, forming a door or operculum to the pulp cavity, its form
being somewhat reminiscent of the trap-door of the nests of certain
spiders. The nature of the taurodontal change in tooth formation
may be explained by the use of a homely illustration. It is the
fashion in Europe to separate the legs of trousers- which
correspond to the roots of the teeth up to the fork of the thighs.
But there have been fashions where the seat of trousers,
corresponding to the floor of the pulp cavity, has been carried
down to the level of the knees, or even to the ankles. In teeth of
the taurodont form the seat is carried to correspondingly low
levels, or, as in this example from Ghar Dalam (Fig. 1, E), carried
to the level of the ground and thus turned into a skirt.
Now, a tendency to taurodontism is present to a very limited
degree in teeth found in men of the modern type; the tendency is
always more marked in the third molars than in the first; it is
more developed in lower molars than in the upper. But, after a long
experience of actual specimens and a wide search of literature, I
am convinced that a high grade of taurodontism never occurs in
modern man ;1 in teeth of the modern type fusion of roots
frequently happens, but this is a totally different state of
matters. In the most marked examples of taurodontism I have ever
seen in modern neolithic teeth, the roots, although fused together,
yet had their independent root channels. Neanderthal man is the
only type which shows a constant tendency to taurodontism. In the
oldest example known, the teeth of the Heidelberg -jaw, the pulp
cavities are relatively and absolutely large; in the teeth of the
men of Spy the degree of taurodontism is not more than has been
seen in teeth of palheolithic man of the European type. In the
teeth of the Gibraltar skull only the tips of the roots have been
differentiated; in this instance the degree of taurodontism has
reached a characteristic amount. This was also the case in the
teeth found by Dr. R. R. Marett in a Mousterian floor in Jersey.
The most marked examples yet discovered were found at Krapina;
among the Krapina upper molars there are teeth which are exact
replicas in every respect of those found by Dr. Despott in Ghar
Dalam. As Neanderthal people grow old and the crowns of their teeth
become worn, the pulp cavity is filled up to a greater or less
extent by the formation of new dentine. Thus, although taurodontism
of a high degree is not present in every individual of the
Neanderthal type, yet it is only in members of this race that high
degrees of it have been observed. I am also of opinion that, as the
Neanderthal type evolved, this curious feature of the teeth became
more einphasized, and that taurodontism occurs in a high degree in
the later generations of this race. Certainly taurodontism must be
regarded as a change of a degenerative nature. At least, it is a
character which is the opposite of being primitive or simian. If
this inference is
1 I have discovered, since this article was written, an instance
of taurodontism in modern man. It is recorded by Dr. H. P.
Pickerill, Proc. Roy. Soc. of Med., 1908-9, vol. 2 (Odontological
Sectioni), p. 150.
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254 SIR ARTHUR KrEITH.-Neanderthal Man in Malta.
right, then the Neanderthal people in Malta may be assigned to
the later part of the history of this race-to the terminal phase of
the period of Mousterian culture in Europe.
In the summer of 1918, as soon as I got to know of Dr. Despott's
discovery, I proceeded to gather information concerning Ghar Dalam.
I found that this cave was about five miles from Valletta and was
situated on a bay, Marsa Scirocco, which indents the south-eastern
corner of the island. From one of the inlets at the head of this
bay, a rocky ravine-the Wied Dalam-cuts into the limestone plateau
of the island in a north-westerly direction. After ascending this
ravine from the shore for about 660 yards (220 metres), the
traveller finds the mouth of the cave on his right hand, about 50
feet above the level of the sea. The cave, which varies in width
from 20 to 60 feet and in height from 10 to 18 feet, runs in a
north-easterly direction for 270 feet. At this point it branches in
several directions, its total length
< _ ~~~PEERELLOS TOWER (7Je)
>SAN MARCO TrOWER (17)
A SCIROCCO
FIG. 2.-SHOWING THE POSITION OF GHAR DALAM AND OF BURMEGHEZ
CAVE.
being over 700 feet. It has been formed in one of the basal
strata of the island- coralline-limestone-and its direction will be
observed to lie almost at right-angles to the ravine on which its
mouth opens.
In the winter of 1912-13 an exploration was undertaken by
Professor Tagliaferro
and Dr. Despott, who cut a trench across the floor of the cave
350 feet from its entrance. In 1914 the exploration was taken over
by a Committee of the British Association. Under its auspices Dr.
Ashby, Dr. Zammit and Dr. Despott cut a cross- trench 200 feet from
the entrance, and issued their report in Man, 1916, No. 14, p. 17.
In this report a full account is given of excavation carried out in
Ghar Dalam prior to 1914. The work of the Committee was continued
by Dr. Despott, who in July, 1916, cut another cross-trench 115
feet from the entrance. His results were published in the British
Associations Report.s for 1916. Then, in July and August, 1917,
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SIR ARTHUR KEITH.-Neanderthal Man in Malta. 255
Dr. Despott cut two fresh trenches across the floor of the
cave-trench I at 50 feet from the entrance, and trench II at 110
feet. It was in trench Il that the teeth to be described in this
paper were discovered. Dr. Despott's account of these two trenches
and what they revealed is, published in this Journal (1918, vol.
xlviii, p. 214).
The fact set out in the above account represents the state of
knowledge of Ghar Dalam in the summer of 1918, when my letter was
published in Nature. In this letter I appealed for funds to assist
the Committee in its exploration of this vast cave, and thanks to
liberal subscriptions from the late Sir Thomas Wrightson, AMr.
Robert Mond and a few others, a sum of ?130 was placed at the
Committee's disposal, and thus, in 1918, 1919, 1920, Dr. Despott
was able to explore the greater part of the floor of the cave
between and also beyond the two trenches he cut in 1916-namely,
that part of the floor which lies between the 50th foot from the
entrance and the 140th foot. His report is published in this
Journal (1923, vol. liii, p. 18). Although no further remains of
palaeolithic man were discovered, nor was any trace of his culture
to be seen, yet the new facts which were thus gathered proved most
helpful in unravelling the age of the cave and of the various
deposits on its floor. Helpful, too, were the papers published by
Miss Dorothy M. A. Bate in the Proceedings of the Zoologicat
Society of London (1916, pp. 421-430) and in the Geological
Magazine (1920, vol. lvii, p. 208), in which she describes the
fossil remains of animals found in the deposits of Ghar Dalam.
There has also appeared in the pages of this Journal (1922, vol.
lii, p. 164) Dr. L. H. Dudley Buxton's valuable account of the
people of Malta of Neolithic and of subsequent periods.
The circumstances, however, which have placed the most helpful
facts at my disposal are these. Thanks to the courtesy of Dr.
Zammit, Rector of the UniverLsity of Malta, and of Dr. G. Despott,
Curator of the Malta Natural History Museum, I have had now an
opportunity of examining all the human teeth found in the strata of
the cave, and of comiparing their condition of fossilization with
that of fossil bones from the deeper and older bone stratum of the
cave. I may say at once that the mineralized condition of the teeth
which I regard as Neanderthal is totally different from that of all
the other human teeth. In their degree of mineralization these two
teeth are in the same state as are the fossil bones from the upper
part of the deepest and oldest fossil-bearing stratum of the cave.
Further, in all their morphological characters these teeth are
duplicates of types which occur in the Neanderthal race, at St.
Brelade in Jersey and at Krapina in Croatia. Beyond a doubt
Neanderthal man did exist in Malta, for we cannot conceive that a
neolithic immigrant to Malta would gather such teeth from the
deposits of a palaeolithic cave and carry them to this cave in
AMalta.
Another fortunate circumstance came to my aid in 1921. My
cousin, Mr. George Sinclair, an able civil engineer in the service
of the Admiralty, was stationed in Malta. Being interested in
pala-olithic caves, Dr. Zammit suggested that he should
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256 SIR ARTHUR KEITH.-Neanderthal Man in Malta.
make an exact survey of Ghar Dalam-to expose its original rock
floor, to determine -the level of this floor to the sea, to chart
the strata as determined by old trenches and as elucidated by the
sinking of fresh ones, and to map out the sites at which former
excavations had been made. In his holidays and leisure hours Mr.
Sinclair threw himself into this task, and how completely he has
carried it out will be seen from his report and plans printed at
the end of this paper. He sank trenches between the mouth of the
cave and the edge of the ravine (Wied Dalam), and was thus able to
trace the strata and rock floor from the edge of the ravine into
the cave. He sank a trench in the talus which had formed below the
entrance to the cave. He dug trenches within the cave itself until
its rock floor was reached. He found that the floor was almost on
the same plane from end to end of the cave and that its level was
27 feet (8 2 m.) O.D. He correlated the deposits from end to end of
the explored part of the cave and showed that they represent a
series of deposits of four periods. His observations and
measurements place data at our disposal whereby we are able to
correlate the deposits in this Maltese cave with those in the
palkeolithic caves of Grimaldi, on the northern shore of the
Mediterranean, near Mentone.
AMr. Sinclair rendered me another very important service. It was
possible that the Maltese of the Neolithic period might have
developed, as a local character- istic, a taurodontic condition of
teeth, although such a condition had never been observed ina any
race of the modern type. Some 3 miles inland from Ghar Dalam,
situated on the plateau of the island, about 300 feet O.D., is the
village of Imkabba. Half a mile to the north of this village is
Burmeghez, where the stratum of globi- gerina limestone is quarried
(Fig. 2). As quarries are extended, great cave-like fissures are
exposed in the rock. In 1913 one of these fissure-caves was exposed
at Burmeghez; it was roughly triangular in section. Its apical part
had opened on the surface of the ground at one time; red soil and
other surface debris had been washed through the opening into the
floor of the cave by rain-floods. Professor Tagliaferro found that
neolithic man had also entered the cave at Burmeghez and had used
it as a burial place. In 1914 the cave was again examined by Dr.
Ashby and Dr. Despott; in the deeper strata remains of late
pleistocene or early neolithic mammals were found. The Burmeghez
cave is of the slanting crevice type ; former investi- gators had
left untouched the deposits in the recess at the extremity of the
downward- slanting floor. To the excavation of this recess or
pocket Mr. Sinclair applied himself. The pottery and objects of
culture which it contained were identical to those found in the
Hypogeum of Hal-Saflieni, which lies to the north of Burmeghez,
midway between this quarry and Valletta. The skulls, most of them
very imperfect, were of the same types as were found in the
Hypogeum, and are therefore of a late neolithic people-the same
people, so we may presume, who frequented Ghar Dalam in neolithic
times. Mr. Sinclair gathered from this neolithic deposit 2,250 very
perfect human teeth, which I have examined in detail. Interesting
as the study of these teeth has been, all I need say now is that no
trace of taurodontism was to be seen in
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SIR ARTHUR KEITH.-Neanderthal Man in Malta. 257
them. The form of degeneration which was present is that which
we are familiar with in modern teeth-fusion and maldevelopments of
the roots, particularly in those of the 3rd or " wisdom " molars.
We cannot therefore attribute these taurodontic teeth from Ghar
Dalam, even if their mineralization had been less complete, to
neolithic men who lived in Ghar Dalam and buried their dead in its
floor.
Before describing the two fossilized teeth it will be well, in
the light of more recent observations made by Dr. Despott and Mr.
Sinclair, to review the circumstances which attended their
discovery, to discuss the age of the various strata of the cave,
and the origin of the various objects which have been found in
them. In Fig. 3 there is represented a section across the strata on
the floor of the cave at the site where the Neanderthal molar teeth
were found. The cave here is 29 feet wide and its strata almost 15
feet (4 5 m.) in depth. There are four series of deposits. (1)
On
P Mol2ar Io/ar UPPER LAYERS
5ft ~~~~~~~ ~BONE BRECCIA
N.W.
FIG. 3.-SECTION ACROSS GHAR DALAM AT THE SITE OF TRENCH II (110
FEET FROM ENTRANCE), WHERE THE NEANDERTHAL TEETH WERE EMBEDDED.
The points in the stratum of red cave earth where they were
found are indicated. The section of strata here depicted is based
on data given by Mr. Sinclair and Dr. Despott.
the floor of the cave, and occupying the recesses under the
polished ledges which project from its side, is a deposit of
yellowish-blue clay varying in thickness from
feet near the entrance of the cave to 21 feet towards its inner
part. It is sterile; its upper stratum is hard. (2) Over the clay
comes a bone breccia-rounded pebbles similar to those now on the
shore of the neighbouring bay-and so thickly interspersed with
fossil remains of three species of extinct elephants and two of
hippopotamus that fossil bones make up 75 per cent. of the entire
stratum. At the point of section (Fig. 3) this bed, including the
boulder layer which caps it, measures 3 feet in thick- ness. Near
the entrance to the cave the breccia layer has a depth of 31 feet;
towards the back of the cave it tapers down to 12 feet. The fossil
bones, as well as the pebbles, are water-rolled and smoothed, and
when we remember that this stratum lies at the
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258 SIR ARTHUR KEITI.-Neanderthal Man in Malta.
level of 30 feet O.D., the same height above the Mediterranean
as that occupied by the old sea-beaches of the Monastirian series
round the shores of the Mediterranean, one may legitimately infer
that the rolling of the component elements of the bone- breccia
stratum goes back to the period of submergence when the Monastirian
beaches were laid down. In the caves of Mentone the Monastirian
beach is represented; over it lies a deposit of the Mousterian
period-the period of Neanderthal man. Over the Mousterian deposits
at Mentone are those of the Aurignacian age. The fossil remains
which were rolled into the breccia stratum in Ghar Dalam must have
been remains of animals which had accumulated and become
mineralized on the floor of the cave-before the period of
Monastirian subsidence, before the Mousterian period, and before
the coming of the Wiirm glaciation. These fossil remains of the
bone breccia, then, may be of various ages, but the latest must
belong, on Professor Boule's mode of classifying Quaternary
deposits, to the lower Pleistocene. (3) Over the bone breccia and
its upper layer of rounded boulders comes the red cave-earth in
which the molar teeth were found. At the point shown in Fig. 3 this
deposit is 6 feet in thickness; near the mouth of the cave it
reaches a depth of 8 feet, while towards the back of the cave it
tapers down to 4-1 feet. This deposit is im- perfectly stratified;
usually two bone layers may be recognized in it-an upper and lower.
In position and sequence it corresponds to the deposits of the
Mousterian and Aurignacian periods in the floors of the Grimaldi
caves at Mentone, and the nature of the fossil remains found in the
cave earth is in harmony with this inference. (4) The fourth, or
superficial deposit, varies in thickness from 1-1 to 2 feet; at the
section shown in Fig. 3 it was 1-1 feet thick. In the superficial
or neolithic stratum, at the site of section (Fig. 3) and towards
the N.W. wall of the cave-on the left hand as one faces the back of
the cave-Dr. Despott observed traces of several neolithic hearths.
It is quite evident, too, that the neolithic people dug into and
disturbed the upper parts of the underlying deposit of red cave
earth; shards of their pottery have been found as deep as 3-1 feet
below the upper surface of the red cave earth. The Neanderthal
molars lay at the same level as, and side by side with, the remains
and objects of culture of neolithic man.
How, then, have teeth assigned to a race which became extinct in
Europe with the Mousterian culture come to be mingled with the
remains and culture of neolithic man ? In the upper feet of the red
cave earth, in all parts of the cave, there has been found, side by
side with neolithic pottery, fossil remains of Hippopotamus
pentlandi, H. minor, Elephas mnaidrensis, besides innumerable
remains of the stag, Cervus elaphus barbatus. In the lowest part of
the cave earth, above the upper boulder layer of the bone breccia,
has been found an intact mandible of Elephas mnaidrensis. In the
deepest part of the red cave earth unrolled remains of this
elephant are abundant; in one trench, which was cut 4 feet deep in
the cave earth, Dr. Despott found the skull of this elephant with
the vertebrae of the neck in their natural relation to the skull,
showing they came to lie there while still united by
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SIR ARTHUR KEITH.-Neanderthal Man in Malta. 259
ligaments and muscles. These animals were still alive in these
ancient Maltese lands when the oldest deposits of the red clay
earth were forming, and, as I infer, when Neanderthal man occupied
a Mediterranean land now almost completely submerged.
The problem of the mix-up of diverse ages in the four upper feet
of the red cave earth does not concern only those two molar teeth
of Neanderthal man; they are in company with fossil remains of two
extinct species of hippopotamus, of an extinct elephant, two
varieties or species of stag, of a vole, of pleistocene birds and
mollusca. Clearly the explanation is that neolithic man dug into
the cave earth for several purposes and at many places. Here his
dead were buried. At the side of the cave near to wvhere Dr.
Despott -found the Neanderthal molars, but about two feet deeper in
the cave earth, Mr. Sinclair found a lower human molar tooth-that
of the present-day type of man. In its condition of preservation
this molar was exactly similar to the teeth of deer obtained at the
same level of the brick earth. Neolithic man had disturbed the
natural records in the upper strata of red cave earth; but we do
not, or should not, reject them as reliable documents on this
account. As archaeologists have had to do in many previous
instances, we have in this case to unravel the confusion which
neolithic man has wrought. A glance at the section depicted in Fig.
3 shows ledges which project from the sides of the cave; above the
ledges are fissures and recesses in which remains derived from
deposits older than the red cave earth may lurk. Mr. Sinclair found
these recesses to contain fossil remains which, if disturbed, as
they might have been by neolithic or palveolithic man, would fall
into the upper strata of the red earth. It was in one of those
upper recesses, filled with red cave earth, that Dr. Despott found
the bones of a limb of H. pentlandi. Luckily for my present
purpose, the condition of fossilization and the characters of crown
and root differentiated these Neanderthal teeth from those of late
palm3olithic or neolithic man, with which they would have been
confused otherwise. Further, their date is pleistocene-very
probably mid-pleistocene, certainly post-Monastirian.
I now come to describe the two teeth. As already stated, they
are hard, heavy and mineralized; the enamel is of a bluish dark
opalescence; the neck and root are of a dull chalky grey. Although
they were found nearly 7 feet apart and the one a foot deeper in
the red cave earth than the other, there can be no doubt they are
members of the same set of teeth. One of them had not completed its
development at the time of death; its crown and neck are formed,
the root part of its body (P1. XXXIV, B2) is not yet developed.
This molar was in process of eruption. The arrangement and
conformation of cusps indicates that it was the 3rd molar of the
right side; it is therefore from the mouth of a young individual,
probably a male, about 16 or 17 years of age. The other tooth (P1.
XXXIV, A2), the one completely formed, but with cusps unworn save
for an impression on the anterior border of the crown, is the 2nd
upper molar, also of the right side. A comparison of the crowns of
the two teeth leaves no doubt in my mind that this is the second
member of the series of which the erupting molar formed the third
and last of the series.
VOL. LTV. T
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260 SIR ARTHUR KEITH.-Neanderthal Man in Malta.
The following table gives the measurements of the teeth
A. Medio-distal diameter of the crown. B. Labio-lingual diameter
of the crown. C. Medio-distal diameter of the neck. D.
Labio-lingual diameter of the neck. E. Height of crown, from tip of
cusps to enamel margin of neck. IF. Length of root, from enamel
margin to bottom of root. G. Height of cusps above hollow of
crown.
A. B. C. D. 1 E. F. G. mm. mm. mm. mm. mm. mm. mm.
M2 ... ... 12 12 9.1 13 7*2 15*2 1-5
M3 ... ... 10.7 12*5 9 13 7 6*7 1.1
Amongst the neolithic teeth I found a few which were 12 mm. or
even 12- 5 mm. in labio-lingual breadth; several, too, almost
equalled the medio-distal diameter of the two teeth here described.
In none of these, however, did the labio-lingual diameter of the
neck exceed the same measurement of the crown as in the case in
these Neanderthal teeth. In none was there the same peculiar
formation of body and root which these two teeth possess. The
operculum, or shutter, of the 2nd molar measured 13 mm. by 10 * 2
mm. (P1. XXXIV, A5). Round three of the borders of the operculum
opens the fissure which leads to the pulp cavity. At its fourth
border, the lingual border (see P1. XXXIV, A5), the operculum is
continuous with the dentine wall of the pulp cavity between the
parts of the body which represent the anterior labial root and the
lingual root. On the lingual aspect of the anterior internal cusp
is a cingular cusp (Carabelli's cusp) (P1. XXXIV, A2).
The enamel of the cusps is sharp and crystalline. In both teeth
all four cusps are well developed, but the postero-internal cusp
has a fuller development in the 2nd molar than in the 3rd. The
details of cusp formation differ from those seen in the cusps of
modern man, particularly as regards the size and length of the
postero- internal cusps. These details may be studied in the
faithful drawings made by Alr. Sewell and reproduced in P1. XXXIV.
In size and form such teeth have been seen in no race of mankind
except H. neanderthalensis; in condition of fossilization and in
the fauna which kept them company, in the red cave earth in Ghar
Dalam, they are in their proper pleistocene setting. So we may
conclude with certainty that at one time there lived on a land now
mostly submerged beneath the Mediter- ranean the peculiar race of
men who inhabited a great part of Europe during a long stretch of
the Pleistocene period. One aspect of this discovery is quite
exceptional. At nearly all other sites where Neanderthal man has
been found the remains of his culture have abounded; but here no
sign of his handiwork has been seen-only these two humble members
of his dental series.
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-
Journal of the Royal Anthropological In8titute, Vol. LIV, 1924,
Plate XXXIlI.
FIG. 1
DR. DESPOTT' S PHOTOGRAPH OF TEETH FOUND DURIING 1917 iN TRENCH
11 (110 FEET FROM THE MOUTH OF THE CAVE).
1. Distal or posterior aspect of 2nd upper molar of right side,
assigned by the writer to H. ne2znderthalensis.
2. Distal aspect of 3rd upper molar of right-side, almost
certainly of the same individual; it is in process of development,
the root portion being yet unformed.
3. 2nd upper milk molar of right side of 'European type (an
unerupted crown).
4. Proximal (anterior) view of 2nd lower premolar of left side.
5. Proximal surface of 1st upper molar of right side (European
type). 6, 7, 8. Lower molars of European types:
(6) M2, left lingual aspect. (7) M2, left labial aspect. (8) M:,
left labial aspect.
NEANDERTHAL MAN IN MALTA.
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Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. LI V, 1924,
Plate XXXI V.
p... ...pL. .
xtroot X~~~~~~~~~~~~..ro
iii... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
utmer~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ /
pros.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.....
7 ~~~~Mk ^
WIG 1.
A'. Chewing aspect of crown of 2nd upper molar of the right
side. B'. Corresponding aspect of 3rd molar.
a.e., antero-external cusp. a.i., antero-internal cusp. p.e.,
postero-external cusp. p.i., postero-internal cusp.
A2. Proximal or anterior aspect of 2nd molxar.
* .... ...
ctng. c., cinguar cusp. opere., operculum. Other letters as
before.
B2. Corresponding aspect of 3rd molar. A3. Lingual inner aspect
of 2nd molar; letters as before. B3. Lingual inner aspect of 3rd
molar, letters as before. A4. Labial or outer aspect of 2nd molar;
letters as before. B'. Labial or outer aspect of 3rd molar; letters
as before. A5. Floor of pulp cavity or opercular aspect of 2nd
molar. B5. Similar aspect of 3rd molar. The surface and roots are
indicated.
NEANDERTHAL MAN IN MALTA.
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Article Contentsp. 251p. 252p. 253p. 254p. 255p. 256p. 257p.
258p. 259p. 260[unnumbered][unnumbered]
Issue Table of ContentsJournal of the Anthropological Institute
of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 54 (Jul. - Dec., 1924) pp.
211-370+1-15Volume Information [pp. ]Front Matter [pp. ]Erratum:
Presidential Address. Anthropology and Psychology: A Study of Some
Points of Contact [pp. ]La Race de Néanderthal et la Race de
Grimaldi; Leur Rôle Dans L'Humanité[pp. 211-230]Marital
Gerontocracy in Africa [pp. 231-250]Neanderthal Man in Malta [pp.
251-260]Ghar Dalam and the Eurafrican Land Bridge [pp. 261-275]On
the Palæolithic Deposits of Sawmills, Rhodesia[pp.
276-286]Communications from the Anthropometric Laboratory of the
University of Aberdeen [pp. 287-315]South Indian Blow-Guns,
Boomerangs, and Crossbows [pp. 316-346]The Origin of Stencilling in
the Fiji Islands [pp. 347-352]The Age of the Maya Calendar [pp.
353-362]MiscellaneaProceedings of the Royal Anthropological
Institute, 1924 [pp. 363-367]Further Note on the "Paccha" of
Ancient Peru [pp. 368-370]
Back Matter [pp. ]